It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
by tbehartoo
Summary: Levy has begun decorating the house to be ready for the Christmas party. Lucy questions one choice in particular.


When Lucy returned with her arms full of packages and bags from her holiday shopping she could see immediately that her petite, blue-haired roommate had been busy. The little two story house that she and Levy shared was certainly looking different. It had swags of evergreen boughs draped from the eaves held in place with giant red bows, every horizontal and vertical angle where walls or roof met had a white line of what looked like royal icing joining the two planes, the shutters had humongous gumdrops attached in neat columns and the previously empty flower boxes under the windows had large, crystal-clear candy roses peeking over the edges. Rainbow colored lollipops, the height of a three year-old, lined the walkway from the street to the door and the welcome mat now had the appearance of a huge bar of chocolate. The door looked as if it was outlined in red licorice and the knob had been turned into a large, candy-coated chocolate piece. Even though it was still light outside, the lights on inside gave a faint buttery glow to the windows. It was the perfect picture of a giant gingerbread house.

"Levy, what are you doing on the roof?" she asked with more than a little concern in her voice.

"I'm getting the Christmas decorations started, because there's really not a lot of time left," she said as she finished tying a branch of evergreen garnish to the house's eaves with the bright red bow.

"Levy, there's a little over three weeks till Christmas!" Lucy exclaimed as she walked toward the girl on the roof. "There's plenty of time. And you've already done so much. You don't need to get yourself killed just trying to... festoon our abode for the holidays."

"Actually, there are," she looked up at the sky as she calculated, "28 days, 48 minutes, and 58 seconds, 57, 56, 55..."

"I get it," Lucy said with a huff. "Will you promise me to be careful up there?"

The blue haired girl looked down into the soft brown eyes that were showing real concern. "Of course I'm being careful, Lucy. I'll be down in a moment; I have one more piece of garland to put up, and then I'm coming back inside."

"Okay," she looked around for the ladder leaning against the house. "Let me put these things down and then I'll hold the ladder so you can descend safely."

Levy laughed. "Lucy, I got up here fine without you holding the ladder," she looked at the scowl forming on the other girl's face, "but if it means that much to you, I'll wait for you to get back before coming down."

Lucy nodded. "It won't take me more than a minute."

When she returned there was a look of pure puzzlement on her face.

"Levy?"

"Yes, Lucy."

"I love how you've decorated the inside", Lucy began slowly. "The Yule log in the hearth is beautiful with the juniper and the white candles; it's almost as beautiful as the cake yule log you made for tonight's party..."

Levy blushed at the compliment.

"And the mantle is so beautiful covered in holly, fir boughs, and mistletoe. It even smells like Christmas in there with the sweet rolls sending off that lovely cinnamon and nutmeg aroma and the mulled wine adding that clove and orange scent, but…" she paused, unsure how to continue.

Levy was at the top of the ladder waiting for Lucy to hold the ladder to keep it steady. "But what?" she looked down and smiled encouragingly.

"Under what decorating circumstances would your only option be to throw a chair at my bookshelf?"

"What are you talking abou-" and then as a memory surfaced she began to blush. "Oh, uh, sorry about that. I meant to have that picked up before you got back, but then it was time to take the bread out of the oven and I had to find the corkscrew to open the wine, but then I realized I should get the outside decorations up before the sun went down so I came out here."

"But Levy, what happened to my bookshelf?" Lucy interrupted with a small laugh. Levy could be as single minded as anyone when on a mission, but when she had too many things going she often flitted from task to task as she remembered them. It was actually a miracle she hadn't burned the rolls.

Levy started down the ladder making it more difficult to see Lucy, but easier to admit to what had happened. "I was trying to get the silver star for the top of the tree down from on top of your bookshelf to see if it needed to be fixed or polished or anything before the party." She stopped on a step, hating to say what had happened next. "I couldn't reach it," she admitted, and Lucy could practically hear the pout, "so I got a chair and stood on that, but…" there was a resigned sigh from the woman.

Lucy guessed the next part of the story. "You still couldn't reach?" she asked as gently as she could knowing the Levy didn't like it when people teased her about her height.

Levy nodded her head and started back down the ladder. "I had one foot on the seat and one on the back of the chair. I had somehow managed to push the star further back on the previous attempt. And just as I finally got a good hold on the box, well..."

"Timber?" Lucy asked with a grin.

"Yeah," she did a half turn to look down at the blonde girl. "Lucy, I'm so sorry! It knocked down a shelf and all the books on it, of course. I got the shelf back up, but I didn't get to the books when the timer went off. and then it all just snowballed from there. I am really, really sorry." She looked carefully at her friend then asked, "Are you laughing at me?"

"Me? Laugh at you? Never!" Though she denied it, a few giggles still managed to escape.

"You are laughing at me!" she accused.

"No, I'm not."

"Lucy, I can feel the ladder shaking," Levy declared.

"Sorry Lev," she said as she calmed her laughter to keep the ladder steady. "Ok, I might have laughed a little," she admitted, "but just because I can totally imagine your face at the time."

"I imagine it was quite the sight," she admitted as she smiled. She returned to climbing down.

"Did you get hurt?" Lucy asked.

"Not really."

Levy was almost to the bottom rung of the ladder. She turned to look at Lucy again. She liked it when she was slightly taller than her partner.

"I think your book of collected poems might have hit my ankle, but it doesn't hurt anymore."

Suddenly Lucy grabbed Levy around the waist and swung her down. She gave her a long hug then, still keeping her arms around her, let her go enough to look into her honey brown eyes. "That wouldn't be the first time those love poems have hurt someone."

Levy smiled up at her. She nodded and said, "I think that at some point in time we've all had trauma involving poetry."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at that and Levy joined in. Levy insisted on stowing the ladder in the side yard by herself. She came back to the front yard and joined Lucy. They stood on the front walk admiring Levy's handi-work for a few moments in silence.

Lucy sighed, "It looks good enough to eat, Lev." She said as she put an arm around the other girl's shoulders.

Levy smiled up at her. "Thanks. I think it looks pretty scrumptious, too."

"You do know Natsu is going to try to eat it the next time he comes over don't you?" Lucy asked.

"I do," she answered with a wicked glint in her eye. "I can't wait for him to try it."

"What did you do?"

"You'll find out when he finds out," Levy answered cryptically. "Which should be in… 2 hours, 23 minutes and 53 seconds."

"So soon?" Lucy asked drily.

"Yes, I think I should know that…" suddenly, Levy shook off Lucy's arm and grabbed her hand pulling her toward the house.

"What's the rush?" The blonde girl asked.

"There's going to be a whole house full of people here in 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 41 seconds and I still haven't decorated the tree!" the blue haired girl exclaimed.

Laughing and shaking her head Lucy asked, "Why do I put up with this every year?"

"Because I bake you delicious Christmas goodies, aaand my decorations make our home look scrumptious, aaaaand I have plans for decorating our tree within an inch of perfection, and-"

"Yes, yes you do all of those things," Lucy quickly agreed before Levy could continue with one of her lists.

As she opened the front door, Levy added one more item, "And because you love me."

Lucy closed the door as she agreed. "Yes, yes I do."


End file.
